Fill er up, Ayatollah

"Guns, fireworks, tanks, [President] Ahmadinejad should be killed," chanted angry youths, throwing stones at police.

Who knew Rudy from Bachelor Party moved on to Iran? [/lameBachelorPartyline]

 

The U.S. companies' pure profit is higher than it ever has been. End of story.

 

Rags, if you want to argue the premise of WHY the prices have gone up, even in the face of record oil company profits, that's fine. Hell, I'll even concede to your argument in that regard.

Doesn't change the fact that it's like bleeding my bank account every time I have to fill up my car. In the end, my bank account doesn't care if it's supply and demand, production, or gouging. It's smarting from beginning to end.

Fascinating, indeed.

 

I'll echo Alley.

Ragu --- and you know I'm lockstep with you on that other thing --- but on this I'm not sure you quite understand the other side. You live in a big city, right? How much driving do you do? (Serious, not rhetorical questions.)

Those of us not fortunate to live around public transportation, and who have to drive extensive distances for work (i.e. road games) have been getting killed for awhile by the prices. But people in metro areas appear unsympathetic, and that's unfortunate. As Alley once said, we're drowning and you're describing the water.

If we go ahead and grant that it's refining capacity, supply and demand, the free market, etc., do you at least agree that something must be done? Those of us not in metro areas don't have the option of subways, busses and carpooling, most of us can't afford a hybrid car yet, and to my knowledge there's no electric car on the market yet.

Any solutions?

 

Supply and demand is a two sided equation. Price squeezes can happen because of a disconnect that starts on either side. All the talk about supply being restricted here in the US due to a lack of refinging capacity is pure nonsense. There is no gasoline supply shortage in the US. NONE! If there was a shortage, there would be odd/even rationing, "NO GAS" signs etc. Every gas station in the country has all the gas it's tanks can hold. Every consumer that wants to buy gas can get all that he wants, neither of those conditions can exist if there is a real supply shortage.

The US has all of gas it needs, when was the last time anyone here went to buy gas and couldn't get it? The oil companies are gouging, plain and simple.

 

The joke is that the politicians who are screaming about this could easily make things easier by temporarily suspending the state taxes on gas, which is a huge chunk of the price we pay.

 

I guess what I'm trying to say, Guy, is when it comes to my financial bottom line, it makes little difference the REASON why.

Like Heinlein wrote in Starship Troopers, it doesn't matter if you buy the farm in a police action or a war. You're still dead.

 

Wow...Rags, I'm sorry, but what part of my above post included rationalizing? I said my bottom line doesn't focus on the why. It simply focuses on the impact. Since there's little I can do about both, it feels like being a victim.

I don't need an economics lesson. I need relief. Plain and simple. Let the brains figure out how to do it best.

 

Interesting. The article says Iran subsidizes 80 percent of the cost of petrol, and that it costs about 11 cents per liter there.

That means that the real cost for petrol in the country is about 55 cents per liter, or $2.10 per gallon.

Still a bunch cheaper than here, where we actually have refineries and whatnot.